This a movie review of SHOTGUN STORIES.

“You've just got to decide if she's the one you're going to love, and love her. Everything else will take care of itself,” Son Hayes (Michael Shannon)

At one end of the spectrum is patronising spoon-feeding, on the other opaque storytelling bordering on incomprehensibility. The three major Westerns of the last year (THERE WILL BE BLOOD, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD) frustrated many but ultimately forced an audience to engage, to join the character and narrative dots themselves even when the dots are far apart. The low-key SHOTGUN STORIES is a fine addition to the resurgence of this elegiac genre. It similarly asks an audience to understand the players, but the ask is not as great as for the above acclaimed films.

Without noticeable music for the first ten minutes, the eventual introduction of the theme is both melodic and haunting, capturing the very essence of the movie – a mixture of dream-like Southern backwater coupled with a real sense of foreboding. The dialogue is sparse with no-one speaking unless a gesture really won’t do. If you have seen GEORGE WASHINGTON, you will not be surprised that David Gordon Green is a producer here. This is a modern indie Western. A family feud between two sets of brothers who share the same father has apparently existed for many years and comes to boiling point when the father dies leaving his first family embittered at their treatment by him. The father appeared to have learnt the errors of his ways the second time, however he did not heal the old wounds. It takes a lack of empathy on both sides to trigger an escalation in revenge. Strong performances and a deft script make the outcome satisfyingly unpredictable. A film of quiet beauty and dread, dealing with resentment and the breeding of violence.